The Tamil-Brahmi script, belonging to the second century BCE, discovered at Samanamalai in Madurai district. An estampage covers the script

It is engraved on a boulder in which a drip-ledge has been cut and beds excavated on the rock floor for Jaina monks to rest

A Tamil-Brahmi inscription that pushes back the association of Samanamalai (â€œJaina Hillâ€), 15 km from Madurai, with Jainism to 2,200 years, has been discovered on the hill. Although scholars in Jainism in Tamil Nadu know the existence of bas-relief sculptures of tirthankaras and Tamil Vattellutu inscriptions on the Samanamalai, both datable to 9th-10th century CE, what has surprised them is the recent discovery of the Tamil-Brahmi script on a boulder on the hill's terrace. The script is engraved on the boulder in which a drip-ledge has been cut and beds excavated on the rock floor for the Jaina monks to rest.

V. Vedachalam, former Senior Epigraphist, Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department, and V. Muthukumar, research scholar from Tamil University, Thanjavur, discovered this inscription. The script, which is datable to second century BCE, has 13 letters.

Iravatham Mahadevan, a scholar in Tamil-Brahmi script, called it â€œa good discovery of genuine importanceâ€ and said he was â€œsurprised that it has been overlooked for such a long time.â€

Different interpretations of the newly found script have been given by specialists in Tamil-Brahmi. Mr. Mahadevan, who read it as â€œPeru Thorur Kunra Ko Ayam,â€ said it recorded the gift of a mountain pool/spring by the chief of the hill at a place called Peru Thorur. He said: â€œIt is clearly an inscription with Jaina affinity because you can see the drip line cut above the inscription, which is carved on the brow of the rock. The letters are very archaic and they are tall and narrow. They belong to the Mankulam and Arittapatti [both situated near Madurai] style of Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions. The archaic nature of the Samanamalai script can be seen from the spelling of the word â€˜ayam,' which means a mountain pool of water or spring.â€

According to Dr. Subbarayalu, the word â€œayamâ€, besides occurring at Samanamalai, had been used in the Tamil-Brahmi inscription at Mudalaikulam, about 10 km to the west of Samanamalai. â€œWe can call â€˜ayam' a spring or a cave. The Mudalaikulam inscription uses the word â€˜Perayam', which means a big tank. There is more of a possibility to call it a cave,â€ Dr. Subbarayalu said. There were chances of obtaining different readings for the Samanamalai script. For instance, â€œThe Urâ€ could be read as â€œTho Ur.â€ The word â€œUzhithegneâ€ could be a personal name, he added.

In Dr. Vedachalam's interpretation, the script refers to an â€œayamâ€ dug by a man called Uzhithegne of Perunthevur. Specialists had argued that the word meant a water tank (â€œKulamâ€ in Tamil). â€œAyamâ€ could also mean a â€œcraterâ€ (â€œpallamâ€). A water tank did not fit into the context of where Jaina monks stayed, the Senior Epigraphist said. So â€œayam,â€ in the Samanamalai context, could refer to the drip-ledge cut on the rock's brow or the beds cut on the floor. Thus the word â€œayamâ€ established that it was a place where the Jaina monks stayed, Dr. Vedachalam said. â€œPerunthevurâ€ could have existed near where the inscription had been found. Both â€œUzhithegneyan,â€ the name of a person, and â€œThevurâ€, the name of a village, belonged to the Tamil Sangam age.

Dr. C. Santhalingam, former Archaeological Officer, Tamil Nadu Department of Archaeology, called it â€œa remarkable discovery which pushes back the association of Jainism with this hill to more than 2,200 years.â€ He read it as â€œPeru Te Rur Kuzhiththai Ayam,â€ which meant these rock beds were carved by the villagers of Peru Therur. The word â€œTherurâ€ could be read as â€œThenurâ€ because the fourth letter in the script looked like the dental â€œnuâ€. Thenur, now located near Sholavandan in Madurai district, found mention in the Sangam texts, Dr. Santhalingam said.

Kuzhiththai meant dug out or excavated. Ayam meant rock shelter or bed. Ayam was the corrupt form of â€œayanamâ€ or â€œsayanam.â€

During the reign of the Mauryas, and especially that of Ashoka, the use of Brahmi script spread throughout the subcontinent. It seems that Brahmi was used throughout the empire; for example, there are Ashokan inscriptions even in southern Andhra Pradesh which are written in Magadhi Prakrit using the Brahmi script. The use of the script also spread beyond the boundaries of the empire into the Tamil kingdoms (probably by Buddhist missionaries and monks), where it was slightly modified to accommodate Dravidian languages. One can clearly notice the influence of Mauryan Brahmi on early Tamil script:

It can rightfully be said that the Brahmi script was the common ancestor of all modern Indian scripts, and that all modern Indian languages have a shared epigraphical heritage dating at least as far back as the Mauryas.

Your theory will never be accepted if it doesn't include tall, advanced, fair-skinned invaders from the West subduing short, primitive, dark-skinned natives.

Click to expand...

Oh, but it does (partially)

The Indo-Aryan migration happened, but instead of 'subduing the natives' there was cultural fusion. The Rig Veda is probably an Indo-Aryan text, Upanishads on the other hand reflect a blending of ideas.

The Indo-Aryan migration happened, but instead of 'subduing the natives' there was cultural fusion. The Rig Veda is probably an Indo-Aryan text, Upanishads on the other hand reflect a blending of ideas.